Last Free Man

Another spooky.

Additional Evil Lurks...

 

Found our nightly ghost:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9KUrIbTABQ

 

Backyard Beast

 

It seems our late night/early morning beast encounters have yielded a footprint....

Recent encounter vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVO7bhMv8xo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKU737QBuec 

Green Tree Frog Flood

I have spent well over 30 years catching bucketful's of tree frogs around NW Georgia.  I grew up steeped in tree frogs around my parent's pool and reveled in their night song on a stormy night.  All this frog study while amateur, has filled me with anecdotal knowledge of their breeding habits, timeframes, feeding, etc.  Throughout all this childhood frog obsession I documented lots of gray tree frogs, bullfrogs, toads, but never once I have I seen the Green variety of tree frog.  Either I have been unlucky for 30 years or they are rare.  Another potential theory is the 500 year flood we just had threw the natural range off in some species.  I have seen more vultures than I can ever recall.  Maybe the additional flying insect surge that comes with high waters is the cause.  Whatever the reason/purpose of the appearance of these emerald green beauties I made a full study as one might expect.  Loads of Green Tree Frog NW Georgia sighting follows: 

More...

Thunderbird sighting!

To many North America indigenous cultures, the Thunderbird carries many of the same characteristics. It is described as a large bird, capable of creating storms and thundering while it flies. Clouds are pulled together by its wingbeats, the sound of thunder made by its wings clapping, sheet lightning the light flashing from its eyes when it blinks, and individual lightning bolts made by the glowing snakes that it carries around with it. In masks, it is depicted as many-colored, with two curling horns, and, often, teeth within its beak.

Deaths head orb weaver variant

While this is certainly a juvenile orb weaver spider, post molt with his markings way out of context; I think this is a fine example of the sometimes deaths head variant seen.  Full of venom and colors these photos are a great example of the often misunderstood beauty of the arachnid world, enjoy...

A little magic smashed into my windshield...

 

Just when Monday was shaping up to be perfect it happened, another fairy encounter.  The now famous cabin encounter has become a YouTube sensation, appeared on Japanese TV, and created quite a stir in the former Soviet Union.  I have received hundreds of messages, comments and replies in regards to this very interesting video snippet that originally came from a dvr at our lake house.  I'm afraid my Internet friends wouldn't be so thrilled about my latest encounter this morning...  You see, as I was driving into work through a dark forest at around 05:40, I ran over a fairy.  Yes it hit my windshield at a brutal 60 mph.  While out spreading magic and fairy dust this little guy rolled over my hood and became a permanent fixture of my truck.  I have a feeling the forces of magic and wonder in this world will certainly be taking up arms against me as I now have thrown the first stone.  I guess I better prepare for the gnome invasion sure to come...

The other not so messy fairy encounter can be found here.

Creature Feature

Upon leaving the lake cabin this evening a giant dog-like creature bounded out of the woods into the road.  I was only able to grab a fast still shot with a cell phone camera when the encounter occurred.  If this was in fact a giant dog, it was much shaggier and large in stature than any other dog I have witnessed.  The beast quickly crossed in front of my vehicle and disappeared into the dark forest. I being a lifelong critic of cryptozoology was actually shaken by the sudden appearance of such a large, black creature.  This was certainly a strange dog of some kind, but what a giant hairy beast it was, perhaps it was a monster of some sort, who knows... 

The giant bird of Cozumel legend

This week I have sighted a giant bird flying around the island of Cozumel.  It reminds me of the giant bird legend that has been a standard in the cryptozoology world.  A wing span of well over 6 feet and an angular wing pattern is the form this giant takes.  I will try to get further media if another sighting happens.  The problem is the creature glides at such extreme heights that it is nearly impossible to get a "known object" comparison shot.  As monster quest has proven over and over again without proper perspective the human mind is just not capable of accurately determining size.  Either way it is interesting to see a bird so large gliding by and casting a huge shadow like an airplane bisecting the sun.  Some media follows:

      

Fairy case resolved, with drippy conclusion.

(A fairy?)

When I arrived at the office today I was greeted by a wicked sized moth.  This lime green beast of a moth was still all fluffy and new, having just been released from its cocoon. Perched on the side of our loading dock we had made himself comfortable under a light near the entrance.  I marveled at the amazing size and colors of this beautiful insect, and wondered what practical purpose it served other than just showing the majestic way that nature has evolved.

While looking this guy over I started to realize something.  The long, wispy lower wings this moth sported sure reminded me of something.  Perhaps this is the exact creature that had caused such an interesting video anomaly a few weeks back, when we were analyzing our cabins security DVR.  After some simple cross referenced measurements based on known objects in the background, I came to a conclusion.  At 8 frames per second with an interlacing encoder this could be my fairy...

   

Well not all the magic is lost I suppose, this was quite a beautiful creature to behold.  Being that the final stage of its life is this most delicate and precious form, It is a bittersweet sight to behold.  Perhaps reminding us all that as death draws near we should always live like we are butterflies!  Such is life...

Media (duh!)

1. Video of huge moth encounter
2. Original Fairy video
3. Fairy Blog

A little magic does a lot of good!

I pride myself on being a lifelong cynic.  Suspicious of everything since a child, this strange trait has kept me safe from identity theft, pyramid schemes, and lots of "great" business opportunities.  I pretty much think that everything has a angle of some kind and there is a little dialog that goes on in my head something like this:  "what is he selling?"  "What does she want?"  "If that were true the company itself would be using this system to make money and hiding it!"  "Monsters pfft!!"  That being said I do have a bit of a controversy in my belief system...

I love cryptozoology.  That's right, the guy who only recently believed in Eskimos, is a big fan of such mysterious bullshit as sasquatch, chupacabra and a host of other creatures of fantasy.  It may have something to do with my ridiculous imagination, or maybe my love of all things unknown.  Either way I have been studying/following the adventurous tales of the quest for unknown species since I was a child.  I delight in the science and the silly as far as the whole situation goes and leave the politics alone as I absorb every piece of info I can.  Now that you understand the dichotomy of my bizarre thinking a fun heart warming video!

Last weekend as my brother and I were poking around in some digital video captured by our cabin's security video DVR (yes we geeked up the cabin, it was diddy though...)  We found a really mysterious thing upon review of the back porch motion file.  A playful, angelic creature graced the camera with a cute flyby and then quickly left.  Begin the mystery of the lake cabin fairy!

    

My cynic voice fired!  A moth combined wityh IR illumination and interlacing of even and odd fields have created this!  My inner child then responded, yes but it did fly in with a perfect circle and has a body with arms and legs!  I think it is most likey a massive moth combined with an 8fps capture under heavy IR illumination that created this strange video, but sometimes it is fun to live in a world with just a little mystery left!  You decide moth or fairy:

For the ultimate in cynical, this is the original clip for review:

Download the_lake_fairy.wmv